Import - what does it mean? Meaning of the word “import”

The word "import" and its derivatives are used in Russian quite often. But do we always understand their meaning well? What does import mean?

About the meaning of the word

A Soviet person would answer without hesitation to the question of the meaning of the word “import”: “Foreign junk”. Accordingly, to import is to deliver to the USSR things produced outside the country. In conditions of a total deficit, goods of overseas production remained for the Soviet people one of the few options to improve their modest life. Therefore, the people greatly appreciated the opportunity to import. Special properties were attributed to foreign goods, far from always inherent in them.

Incidentally, the popular interpretation was consistent with the definition of other sources, which understood as importation of the import into the state of foreign goods that were not subsequently exported back. But such an explanation cannot be considered exhaustive.

About the origin of the word

The word "import" comes from the Latin importo. Import - it really means “import” or “enter”. And here there is a certain ambiguity: you can import in different ways. In what cases is it appropriate to talk about import? The clarification of those dictionaries seems to be important, where it is not just about the entry into the country of goods from abroad, but about their import into the customs territory of the state. That is, a sweater or jeans bought by a Russian tourist during a vacation in Turkey, or personal belongings of a foreigner, which he then takes back, will not be called import. Import - this is to engage in targeted foreign trade in accordance with the legislation of your country (including customs). This activity is based on economic and political state interests.

What can be imported

What foreign goods and in what quantity to import into the country is a matter of the state’s strategy, backed up by the relevant legislative framework. By the way, not only material values ​​fall under the concept of import. Work, services, intellectual products can also become the subject of foreign trade, which is also regulated by law.

It must be said that since the times of the USSR, significant changes have taken place in the structure of imported goods and in their quantities. A Soviet man, if he had suddenly appeared in a modern store, would have been amazed at the abundance and diversity of the once coveted overseas items. What is Russia currently importing? Yes, anything! Food and light industry products, scientific technologies and modern equipment, machinery and much more. True, the structure of import-export can hardly be called balanced, but this is another story.

About some political terms

Anyone who has studied Communist literature will surely recall such a formulation: imported Marxism. This is a political doctrine that was not born in Russia, but came here from other countries. For modern man, historians’s arguments about how the ideas of Marx, developed in Europe, conquered Russian spaces and inspired local minds are unlikely to be important. But the practice of using the word “import” and its derivatives to describe political and economic phenomena may seem interesting.

Something About Inflation

“Imported inflation” is a relatively new term. But its essence is the same as in previous cases: something is imported to us from the outside. What got into our region this time?

Inflation (from the Latin Inflatio - “bloating”) refers to a steady increase in prices for goods and services, as a result of which the purchasing power of the local currency becomes lower. That is, as a result of some internal cataclysms, money depreciates, and a person for some fixed amount today can buy less goods than he could buy yesterday. Inflation is an extremely unpleasant phenomenon, and doubly offensive if its causes lie outside the country. For example, as a result of an increase in the cost of imported raw materials, prices for dependent local goods rise. Sometimes, imported inflation can be the result of complex financial relationships between the national currency and the monetary units of other states.

Import as a technical term

The use of computer technology has defined a new meaning for the word “import”. With the development of digital technology, a need has formed to exchange data from various sources. Adding (inserting) external information into the current document, file, database is called import. The current information space, suddenly deprived of the opportunity to draw data from the outside, is already impossible to imagine. Microsoft was one of the first to ensure the exchange of information between its applications, and not only. So, working in a text editor Microsoft Word, it is easy to supplement the text with "alien" pictures and tables. Importing data into the Microsoft Access database is possible using information from Microsoft Excel, etc.

It is difficult to imagine all the possible conveniences that the prospect of using information from other people's databases opens up for people working at a computer. This, of course, is not about espionage. Imagine a regular online store selling household appliances. The store cooperates with the owners of the product, and it is important that each change in the suppliers database is followed by an appropriate adjustment of the store information (for example, the presence or absence of a particular product). Therefore, you need a service that allows you to keep the online store database up to date. This service, in turn, is based on the ability to import supplier data into customer information files.

What is import photo?

The current computer user is pretty spoiled. He no longer has texts and numbers - he longs for new services, more diverse and colorful information. One of these features is importing photos. What does it mean?

For digital cameras (cameras), a photograph is simply a file that can be processed in one way or another (it all depends on the functionality of the camera). But the most interesting thing is to work with photography directly on a computer. Import means moving or copying a file there, which is achieved by technical manipulations (both devices are connected) and software (the ability to import is provided for both the computer and the camera). That's all! Further, the imported image can simply be stored, but it can also be processed using some computer program (for example, Adobe Photoshop). Such an exchange of information between different devices makes their possibilities truly limitless. After computer processing, an ordinary photo can become a work of art. But computer text, illustrated with the necessary photo, immediately adds to its significance and value.

The ability to import photos allows you to save your favorite photos, create thematic photo albums, share pictures with friends, etc. You can import files not only from the camera, but also from memory cards, scanners, and other devices. In addition to photos, they import texts, music, and clips. The combination of different methods of data exchange allows you to create unique multimedia projects, and just enjoy your work on the computer.

About bookmarks

A bookmark was once called a fixture (usually a strip or lace), with which the necessary page in the book was marked. The meaning of this word has not changed too much these days: bookmarks are the ability to select (mortgage) your favorite Internet sites in order to access them in the easiest way. When you change the computer or Internet access program, and sometimes when changing the software, there is a considerable chance of losing the addresses of the selected sites - moreover, each browser organizes work with bookmarks in its own way. But in many cases, the ability to import bookmarks (i.e., save them in a certain way and then reintroduce them) will help to solve the problem. How to do this technically, in each case is decided separately, but the convenience of this service is difficult to overestimate.

Conclusion

Data exchange is now happening everywhere. Files and databases are imported, email contacts and bookmarks of individual social networks are imported. The concept of “import” now applies even to address books of mobile phones. And, perhaps, tomorrow we will hear about some new meaning of this interesting and multifunctional word.